Codebook

Please refer to the codebook’s How to read the variables section for details on each variable. The codebook also includes detail information about the data collection process, and the methodology.

The GD-Turnout includes 27 variables, including, for example, election type; registered voters; vote cast; and votes for the first two candidates/parties. We have also included 7 variables from IDEA: population; voting age population; registered voters; votes cast; total vote; voting age population voter turnout; and percentage of invalid votes.

We have gathered detailed information turnout on all presidential and parliamentary (lower house) elections from 1945-2020. The GD-Turnout also provides detailed information for multiple rounds. When organizing elections countries follow either plurality or runoff rules. When the former, voters just vote once. When the latter, one candidate or party must obtain a certain percentage -normally 50%- in the first round to avoid a runoff election, with the second most voted. Runoff elections are normally used in presidential elections (eg. Chile), but they are also used in few parliamentary contests (eg. France). We have gathered all the registered voter turnout information for all the rounds where available both for presidential and parliamentary elections. Check notes on these countries in the database to know, for example, why some elections did not have a second round (there is usually a “more than 50% of vote” in the first round rule). Second rounds in parliamentary elections tend to have significantly less registered voters than the first round. In most cases, this can be explained because the second round only includes the electorates in which there was no absolute majority in the first round. See notes for specific cases.

We provide sources for every election included in the dataset. We have also added notes on every country included in the codebook, along with notes on specific elections that required clarification within the dataset. The codebook can be downloaded here.